feeling the newness

The new year is upon us. Many will sit up, watching the clock walk through the hours and minutes until midnight. It will leave footprints on this moment, then, just before the witching hour, dust off its feet and leave the sands of 2014 to walk through the sands of 2015. This new time is intriguing. I conjure memories of the year 2000, when everyone thought something Earth shattering and/or life transforming would happen to the entire planet. From the religious to the scientific, many felt Earth changes were eminent, whether from their god or technology. As with most beliefs, they fade away into obscurity, as many conveniently forget the passion with which they believed what they imagined was to come. They turn into inconvenient memories that sometimes embarrass and at other times amuse. Then, 2012 became the new milestone. It was not as fervently looked at as a major physical Earth change, but very much a spiritual Earth change for many. I remember these moments. I watched dispassionately as people wondered, believed and feared. Everything about those days became a story in my mind, each a chapter to a book that was writing itself.

As 2015 draws nearer, breathing heavily down the necks of most, I am reminded that this newness we all feel is relative. For some, this is not a new year. Their new year begins at a different time, maybe in July, when the air is hot. For others, the notion of a new year doesn’t exist. They do not live by calendars but instead by the changing seasons. What is new is not the year, but the return of spring and the flower that pushes up through the still chilly soil. Or the fall of red, orange and yellow leaves. Still, for others the new year is the falling snow that blankets the land smooth. This newness is not measured by years, but by the bloom of flowers and the budding of new fruit, the scurrying of squirrels collecting nuts, the birds flying south or the trees naked of leaves. Each new season is their idea of a change worth noting, a year that lasts not twelve months, but two to five months depending on whether one lives above or below the equator.

While the Gregorian calendar marks the new year, I will allow the planet to mark my new year. For me, it is the tell tale signs of spring, the release of energy. When trees begin to bud and cold soil is broken with new life, the air carries with it heat and the smell of warm rain to come, this is my new year. It is when evergreens decide to awaken and bud or bloom. Tonight, I will sit awake and participate in the energy transference so many will exude for their new year. In a few months, I will meditatively watch and wait for the first signs of my new year which I consider to be more transformative and enlivening. Winter was the gathering of energy. Spring is the release of energy. I want to be aware of and ready to receive the beginning of this amazing release. I feel the newness coming. It’s almost here. I can smell it in the wind.

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4 comments

I Love Spring, Summer and Fall. Warmth and heat are my friends! 🙂 As you spoke so eloquently in your blog there are many New Years to be Celebrated in many ways. I’m enjoying this New Year 2015. I’m not the drinking or partying type but I will quietly say Goodbye to 2014 at home with my cats Sylvester & Weezer. Tomorrow I will pray, chant and meditate at the main Shinnyo-en Buddhist Temple in White Plains. Best way I now to bring in the New Year. Second New Year for me is my birthday in Feb. 27th. I will be 56. I get excited about my birthday because first I Thank God for bringing me through another year and I’m more thrilled about the possibilities of each crossing. Truly the “Change of Life” has been a somewhat tumultuous but fill with good changes for me and I’m enjoying the journey.